5th

earlier today i was riding along the PIE, taking my friend home from work. i was on the 2nd right lane at about 60kmph in heavy traffic, following the car in front of me.

some bikes zoomed past me on my right, in between lanes. suddenly a car on my right poked his front out to turn into my lane. it was about 1 car length ahead.

the first bike swerved but the back wheel clipped the car. BANG! the sick crunch of metal on metal. the bike went left and smacked into another bike beside it, sending both to the ground.

OH FUCK, i thought. and immediately started braking. i could see pieces of their bikes falling off, as the 2 riders flew across to my left. their bikes were still on the right side.

and then, another 2 bikes who were just slightly ahead of me during the first crash ran into the bikes on the ground, sending them flying too. the sound of the crunching metal was disgusting.

all this must have happened within 2 seconds, and i was still desperately trying to brake while looking out at where the bikes and bodies were, to avoid being casualties #5 and #6.

fortunately, the momentum sent the 4 bikes and 2 remaining riders sliding across to my left too, clearing a little path for me to go through. because i have the reflexes of a cat, i safely made it through the wreckage.

i rode past the rider who had slid the furthest, but he looked to be getting up and was already shouting in anger. i considered stopping but there were still many cars behind me and i didn't dare to stop.

i didn't stop because i was also worried of seeing any of the damage on the riders' bodies. i may sound very relaxed now, but i assure you it was one hell of a traumatic experience.

when the 2nd bike went down, i was already preparing to fall and looking for the safest place to do so, and also prepare to slide out rather than flip over and fly. luckily i kept my cool and rode it out.

giants

one night some time back i saw a bat flying over a small road, under the orange glow of streetlamps. i stood there watching the bat fly, up and down, up and down, hovering around the same area.

each time it went up and down, it would lose some height. wow, this bat must either be injured or retarded, because it was the worst bat i've ever seen in my life.

up and down, each time losing some height till finally it landed on the road, and it was then that i could finally confirm my suspicions. it was not a bat, it was an atlas moth.

and after that day when i witnessed first-hand just how retarded atlas moths are, my fear of them increased ten-fold. it's gigantic, it's disgusting, and it's retarded.

it's the same case as how crazy people are more scary than normal ones. retarded moths are so much more dangerous.

scandals

i have been away at orientation camp (unbelievably yes i joined!) and so missed out on the entire world cup fall-out. now it's as though nothing ever happened and it feels weird as hell, like there's no closure after a month of world cup action.

this world cup has been more or less like the past season's english premier league. all teams were shit, and the least shitty team won. i was watching the final, hoping that something interesting would happen, but at the same time hoping that neither team would win.

spain, they bore me to death, and probably bore their opposition too. 100% possession with no cutting edge. i get so pissed off watching them play. holland, simply not enough quality in their side, and besides, they had robben! the absolute scum of the earth in their team. i would never want to see him win anything.

there was no outstanding team. the south americans showed flashes of brilliance and good technique, but couldn't break down the organisation of the europeans and their technique failed them when it mattered the most.

the africans were dreadful, and i found it weird that everyone was supporting ghana. isn't that kinda like racism? supporting them just because they are black? glad that they didn't make it to the semis too.

besides that, almost all of the big name stars failed to make much of an impact. rooney, messi, ronaldo. too much pressure to deliver? but they're stars for that precise reason, to deliver results when it matters the most. ronaldo was of course the biggest loser of all, thinking he is god and shooting from 40m when his team were behind and time was running out.

but i think after everything, the one thing this world cup has really shown was the failure of fifa. the ball was absolutely shit and for the first time ever i could actually see it shifting in mid-air on my facking computer screen.

referring decisions were shit too, and football can no longer rely on the keen eyes of linesmen for such split-second decisions. football is really getting too big for such stupid things to occur. the only reason i can think of is that they need to influence games, and the most efficient way is through the refs. this obviously would be difficult if their decisions could be challenged by technology.

oh, there's an emergency

thursday night i was riding home from the airport when suddenly there was a jerk and a loud noise like a mega vacuum cleaner under my bike. i later figured that my entire exhaust pipe probably fell out and i ran over it, hence the jerk and extra-loud engine noise.

i left the bike at a carpark and got the bike shop to tow it the next morning. in addition to a new exhaust, i told them to check the front brake lever too because it was feeling tight and i thought it just needed some oiling. they ended up changing the cable.

"it's better to change the cable because sometimes emergency you need to use it," the auntie told me. "hmmm, emergency," i thought. that word made me feel uneasy so i agreed.

so yesterday i went to collect my bike and i was running very late thanks to my under-estimation of how crazy traffic jams can be. i reached the shop at 7, when i was already supposed to be in class at that time.

when i was going down the carpark, i realised i had not tested my brake yet, so i very gently pulled it. once the brakes engaged, the entire shit just locked up and before i knew it, my bike was on the ground. i didn't fall because i have the reflexes of a cat.

now the left side of my bike was scraped up, the left mirror loose, front brake useless, it would have been wise to just ride back up to the mechanic and get him to fix my shit, but i was VERY late for class and i'm a dedicated student so i continued on my way.

riding through the traffic, i thought to myself, wow, if there's an emergency now i'll definitely be dead.

parenting 101

last week an australian girl added me on msn by mistake. after a while, she said there was something she wanted to ask me about. she is 16, living with her bf and his parents. she's not on talking terms with her own parents.

she is also not talking to her bf because he was pissed that she was talking to some other guy.

the thing she wanted to ask me was that she just discovered she had breast cancer and she wondered if she should tell her parents about it. "obviously you should," i told her. she didn't want to, but agreed that she would if it got worse.

today she messaged me and i asked her if she told her parents about it. this is what she said.

"that i had some bad news and that the bad news was that i may have cancer and then they said that they hated me and that i was a mistake and that they never wnt to see me agan

and for me to go die"

when the skies aren't blue

gimme all that nice things